Tomorrow we welcome the RIAM to St Ultans for the second workshop of the Primary Ensembles Project. The kids are really looking forward to this one and are eager to show off all that they've learned and have been practicing since the first workshop in November! After 3 workshops; Presto Players will have the opportunity to play in a collaboration concert in the National Concert Hall on the 16th of April and it promises to be quite the spectacle! St Ultans and Presto Project have had the luxury of performing in the National Concert Hall on a number of occassions over the years and it's always a really special day for all the children, staff and families. This promises to be no different! Stay tuned for a report on how our preparations are going!

What a concert the junior Christmas concert was! Presto Players, Presto Harmony, senior infants violin show and our management team in action all supported by the Presto tutors! Such an incredible day of festive cheer and celebration. Music truly is alive and well in St Ultans! Check out the little video below of our team rocking out to Slade supported by all music team! The show continues with the senior concert on Friday the 15th at 11am! Merry Christmas everyone!

Saturday the 18th and Sunday the 19th saw the Presto Players orchestra and the Presto Harmony choir take to the stage to perform at the Kilcoole Festival 2017 in Kilcoole, Co. Wicklow. Presto Players performed in the Junior Orchestra competition coming in second place with a score of 90% from the adjudicator! What a result!

The orchestra in action!

On Sunday, Vocal Harmony performed in the Mary Kiernan Perpetual Trophy under 12's competition coming in 3rd place and taking home a well deserved medal. Their rendition of "Fionnghuala" went down a storm and brought some critical acclaim from both parents and judges alike!

This week in Presto Project our junior infants groups are showcasing what they've been learning as part of the Presto Project Pre-Instrumental Music Programme. Our junior infants groups will be graduating into class violin lessons next year in senior infants. The kids have been having a ball all year learning new musical games and songs. Múinteoir Sarah's class got an opportunity to showcase that to some of their parents yesterday! We're looking forward to some more brilliant music making with Múinteoir Emer and Múinteoir Claire's classes later this week too!

Pre-instrumental music plays a significant role in learning and integrating key musical concepts into young learners lives. This programme facilitates the transition from early years education into musical instrumental tuition very well by making music fun, engaging and easy to remember via games and songs.

On April 29th some members of Presto Youth, our teenager programme, took part in phase 1 of the Cherry Orchard Young Leaders Programme. This programme, similar in rationale to the GAISCE awards, aims to equip young people with leadership, teamwork and communication skills. It was a really fun day! There were lots of activities involving trust, teamwork and communication. It was also really great to meet some of our peers from the Cherry Orchard Equine Centre and the St Ultan's Care Unit also. Everyone agree that it was an inspiring and worthwhile day. We look forward to phase two of the programme in Cavan on June 9th!

On April 28th members of our Senior Strings Orchestra and Vocal Harmony group played some music for the official opening ceremony of The Orchard; St Ultan's state of the art dedicated ASD unit. It was a fantastic occasion and we were delighted to be asked by The Orchard coordinator Maria McGarrell to be involved with the event. We would like to congratulate Maria and all The Orchard staff on a hugely successful event and on all their incredible hard work in making The Orchard such a success. Best of luck in future guys!

We were delighted to be invited to take part in the Passion Project last weekend. This was a secular retelling of the Passion of the Christ within the context of the Cherry Orchard/Ballyfermot community. It was a raw and powerful account of the lack of humanity sometimes shown towards working class communities. Our Senior Strings members were involved in the opening scene at the Aspect Hotel in Parkwest where they provided some entertaining interval music for a corporate conference.

All ready to go!

The kids were absolutely enthralled by the intensity of the opening scene so credit to all the actors involved for delivering such an engaging performance! On day two our very own Múniteoir Danny was involved in leading the precession down from Ballyfermot College of Further Education to the Assumption Church for the protagonists 'trial'.

Múinteoir Danny leading the way!

Danny then led the congregation down to Markievicz Park for the sentence to be passed. What an intense and emotional scene! All in all it was an exciting and successful two day event. We would like to congratulate Gary, Feidlim and Joyce on an incredible production. And a huge well done to all the cast, crew and local community organisations who done such an amazing job making it all happen. D10 has passion!

On Saturday our Senior Strings performed at the IAYO Festival 2017 in the National Concert Hall. We had such an incredible time! We got the chance to perform with some amazing youth ensembles from all around the country. Thanks again to IAYO for such an incredible opportunity!